A public talk by Riyadh Lafta of Baghdadís Al-Mustansiriya University College scheduled for Friday, April 20 at 7 p.m. at SFUís Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue has been cancelled.

Alternative arrangements have been made for a talk by Les Roberts, co-author with Lafta of a Lancet article on Iraqi casualties. Roberts will speak at the University of Washington, with a live feed to SFUís Wosk Centre. A question period will follow. The speech will take place April 20 at 7 p.m.

The event in Vancouver will be moderated by Tim Takaro, an associate professor of health sciences at SFU who is studying the rise in childhood cancer in Iraq with Lafta and researchers from the University of Washington (U of W).

Lafta was unable to make the visit after being denied a transit visa while in Jordan, en route to Vancouver. He had been scheduled to spend a week meeting with members of his research team while at SFU.

The U of W, which launched the study with the University of Basra in Iraq, was supposed to host the week-long meeting of the research collaborators. The venue was changed to SFU when Lafta was denied an entry visa to the U.S.